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27 February 2015

I have been holding out on you. But only because I don’t know where to begin. About two years ago, I crashed an outdoor flea market with some friends and a small pop-up stall. I used to love the fleas passionately, but as owning things lost its importance, so did the chase. Now, it is about something else entirely: salvaging, recycling and reducing waste. The chase is fun again.

With the pop-up stall, I realized how much I had missed the feeling. Exchanging stories and knowledge about the odd little things. The process of matching unwanted things with the perfect owner, and seeing them light up with excitement over the newfound treasure, there is nothing like it. I can’t even begin to explain how much sense it makes to me. I try to book a flea market stall at least once a month, now.

Things have a way of finding me. Sometimes attics are cleared, and boxes of unwanted stuff is thrown out into the street. I can’t bear the idea of things that could be used, going to waste. It kills me. Sometimes I will find something that is broken, and fix it, or just make it into something different. Sometimes all it needs is a good cleaning, and a nice presentation. The important thing is that it gets a new life.

If something is of no use to me or anyone I know, I make sure it is
forwarded to a recycling centre. Key is to discard only of what is
completely useless. Broken does not necessarily qualify as useless, good
quality can usually be repaired. The worst offender is things and
clothes made in recent time, nobody wants that. Which should make us
reconsider our shopping pattern. There is so much good stuff out there,
and so much of it is going to waste, you wouldn't believe what I have
rescued from the incinerator.

A few weeks ago I passed a large container on Østerbro,
filled with the estate of an old Copenhagen photographer. The people
loading it, invited me to take what I could use, and I grabbed a bag
worth of old photographs, wrapped in paper. It was only when I got home and unpacked them, I realised that I should have taken more, oh.
One of the small packages read "children", and turned out to be vintage
black and white photographs of young Danes, dating back to the
1960s.

All these photograps are by Henning Nielsen. From the tender moments captured, and the way the subjects (on all his pictures) respond, you can tell he was a good man. I wish I could have met him.

17 February 2015

By now, you have probably heard about the shootings in Copenhagen. On
Saturday afternoon, an armed man tried to gain entrance to a public
debate on free speech, attended by a Swedish cartoonist and the French
ambassador. The shooter fired his automatic weapon in the foyer, killing
an innocent bystander, film maker Finn Nørgaard, and wounding three police officers. He managed to escape, but reappeared later at the Copenhagen synagogue, where one civilian and two police officers
stood guard over a Bar Mitzvah. The two officers were wounded and the
civilian paid with his life, but they managed to keep the 80 guests inside, safe. Central Copenhagen was locked down, and the manhunt ended at
5AM, where he opened fire on the police, and was shot to death.

Any moron with a grudge can abuse the trust shown in him, by society.
It is the healing process that takes effort. Like when Charlie Hebdo was attacked in Paris, we mourn, we talk, we comfort each other and
try to make sense of it all. We remind each other how important it is, not to blame a large
group of people for the actions of one disturbed man. We know how
important it is to pull together now, across religious and political
beliefs.

Interestingly, shootings as a tool to scare citizens, have proven ineffective. Danes are sad, but unafraid, and the response to these attacks has been an outpour of love and compassion.

11 February 2015

If there is one thing I have learned in recent years, it is that the change we want in society, must come from the people. Not the politicians. Here is an example of how they work: In an attempt to reclaim soda sales from across the border, the Danish government cancelled the sugar tax. As predicted, sales went up (on both sides of the border) and consumption increased by more than ten percent. Now all the masterminds have to do, is sit back and await the backlash: obesity, diabetes and dental decay.

So, we ask, with this tool available, why not lower the tax on organic and healthy food? Ah, but that is not doable, sorry. Never mind the overwhelming public interest in eating healthy and minimizing the use of medication and toxins in farming. That’s a different bottom line.

Fortunately, we don’t have to wait for the politicians: One of the biggest supermarket chains in Denmark, COOP has taken matters into their own hands. On the 25th anniversary of the organic mark “Ø”, they have pledged to boost the organic supply in the Irma stores. The goal is to double the sales and selection, over the next ten years. This is done by reducing the markup on organic food, making it accessible to more people. An in-house process that does not affect the suppliers, other than increase the demand for their product.

They began implementing this in January 2015, and already the organic sales in Irma stores have gone up by forty percent. Whoa? Imagine what could be done, if our politicians had similar guts and vision?

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of “Ø”, they messed with the Irma chicken, by the lakes. As you can imagine I was not amused, the Irma chicken is untouchable!

(Pardon the blur, I was in a state, haha)

However, “Ørma” has reassured me that it is a temporary thing, mounted on top of the old. It is going to look like this for the next year, maybe two. I am sucking it up in the name of Ø. And because, you know: I love Irma. More than ever.

02 February 2015

Back in 2012 we all had a good laugh about the stalker seagull by the rooftop apartment, around the corner. Remember that one? I had seen the big bird peeping through the window, and immediately jumped to the wrong conclusion. Because as it turns out, it is not a stalker, but a friend. Oh.

Now my eyes always seek out this spot, from the moment I turn the corner. When it is there (and it almost always is), it is like winning the seagull bingo. The reward is this odd reassuring feeling that the world is in order and everything is alright. And, for days when one just won't do, you get two.

But only on special occasions. (November 2013)

Masters of the stare just know when you are looking at them. Six stories down you get it right back, along with a clear message: "can I help you?".

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Greetings

We love Copenhagen so expect us to be biased. We hug trees, and we love street art, flea markets, old cars and new ideas. We go everywhere by bike, and nowhere without a camera. We worship freedom of speech and believe in democracy, but we have long since lost faith in our politicians. Me and my big mouth.